What you’ll be playing on Sony’s new PS4: Knack, Diablo III

Sony promises to help developers open "new business models."

When Sony's PlayStation 4 arrives, the titles available on the system are going to be at least as important as the console's actual hardware—if not more so. Sony and game developers took to the stage on Wednesday to announce some of the games that will launch with the latest-generation console, and while we couldn't do any hands-on demos just yet, we got to see some interesting videos to pique our curiosity.

CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment Andrew House promised "socially enriched" content (as seen in the dedicated "share" button on the new PS4 controller) as well as "episodic and free-to-play" games. Here are a few games that Sony is promising, with these ideas in mind.

The new titles

Lead System Architect Mark Cerny (also the creator of Marble Madness and former president of Universal Interactive Studios) took the stage, saying Sony wanted to make sure "nothing would come between the platform and the joy of play." He then demoed a new game that he is directing, called Knack.

The game was used to demo some of the new PS4's key features: gameplay recording, social sharing of the gameplay, and faster game loading. The PS4 will allow you to see when your friend is "in trouble" in a game, so you can reach out and take control of the game through your own controller. As for faster gameplay, you only need to download a fraction of the data to begin playing, and the rest should download in the background.

David Perry of Gaikai talked about cloud gaming in a social sense, using Gaikai's cloud gaming experience to "broadcast your game in 100 percent real time," and let your PSN friends help you out in a tough section of game. Perry also said developers would have new tools to take advantage of this remote play feature, even letting users "find a particularly capable player—they can give them a special status as "directors."

Perry and Cerny also demoed using the Vita for remote play—the game runs on the PS4 but shows up on the Vita, which "turns the PS4 into a game server, and Vita becomes a client." Finally, Perry announced that the PlayStation Cloud Service has been fully greenlit by Sony, which may make games from legacy consoles available to gamers.

Sony stressed how important third-party developer support will be for its new system, and it brought out representatives from Worldwide Studios to introduce Herman Hulst of Guerrilla Games with Killzone Shadowfall, a game about "two factions living side by side... searching for a lost home."

Matt Southern of Evolution Studios talked about a game 10 years in the making that will come out on the PS4 "about driving the very best cars in the world, in the greatest locations in the world, and doing it together." The game, called DriveClub, is meant to be collaborative, allowing gamers to play asynchronously and set up challenges for other players. "We've gone borderline insane with... totally correct material parameters, painstakingly measured from the real thing," Southern said.

Next, Sucker Punch's Nate Fox came onstage to talk about the studio's latest game, Infamous Second Son. "It is hard to put your finger on what that sense of security is worth." Fox opined. "However, it's easy to say what it costs." In Sucker Punch's game, "a handful of people developed superhuman capabilities" to become "living, breathing weapons."

Braid creator Jonathan Blow followed up what he called "all those explosions" with his new game, The Witness, which has been in development for three-and-a-half years. "The PS4 will be the only console that the Witness is on," he revealed, though a PC version is still presumably in the works.

As we've previously written, it's a game about exploring an island, but also about what Blow calls "epiphany... that moment that takes you from confusion to understanding." Blow wants the game to be "a very dense experience that makes the best use of your time," with "new interesting things around every corner."

Capcom's Yoshinori Ono spoke in Japanese not about Street Fighter, but a new engine tuned for the PlayStation 4. Codenamed Panta Rhei, the new engine will "allow us to take game design in entirely new directions." A video demonstration of a game with the working title "Deep Down" showed a medieval knight in beat-up armor using a torch to explore an icicle-filled cave, before encountering a dragon with impressively lit fire breath. "Conquer your fear or die a coward," the tagline urged potential players.

Square Enix's Yoshisha Hashimoto was on hand to once again show the aspirational Agni's Philosophy demo that was first shown at last year's E3. The real-time tech demo using Luminous Studio, Square Enix's new game engine tuned for the PS4. The video showed some impressive lighting and particle effects as a team of crimson-robed wizards fought encroaching enemies armed with automatic weapons, all while sparkly red glitter flowed through the air.

Square Enix's Shinji Hashimoto also came on stage to say that the company is "preparing for development of a Final Fantasy title. Please be excited for E3 this year."

Ubisoft was on hand to give another demonstration of Watch Dogs, the open world thriller that was first shown off at E3 last year. The game focuses on the hyperconnectivity of our technologically linked world, from "traffic jams [to the] war against crime [to] power management. In Watch_Dogs, you're going to control all of it... everything is connected. Today, I want you all to discover that everyone is connected... Once you can tap into anyone's lives, anything can unfold dynamically in front of you."

The live demo of the game showed protagonist Aiden Pierce using his phone to hack into ATMs, gather information about potential targets, short out circuit breakers to cause a distraction, and raise traffic pylons to stop oncoming cars.

Blizzard's Chris Metzen came out to tell the audience that his company and Sony "have entered into a strategic partnership, through which we will take over the world," he joked. "Oh, if it were that easy." He talked up the company's console roots through games like The Lost Vikings and Rock and Roll Racing and said they've had a desire to get back to these console players. "The trick was always going to be... how are we going to do it?"

"We feel—we know—that in partnership with Sony we have our game." That game is Diablo III, which will be available on the PS4 and the PS3. The control schemes and interface have all been optimized for the console already. "Diablo 3 has really never been easier to play." The console version will feature a full screen four-player co-op mode—"One couch to rule them all." The game will be fully demonstrated at PAX East.

Finally, Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg came out to follow up on last week's public reveal of Destiny. He stressed that the game, and by extension formerly Xbox-linked Bungie, would be coming to the PlayStation 4 and the PS3.

98 Reader Comments

I wish you guys would cut it out with the headlines on here saying what "you" will be doing with one device or another. No, I WON'T be playing any games on the new PS4. I'm mildly curious about it, but I'm not a gamer. Trying to put "you" into headlines to make it relevant in this way is bush league. Worse, though, it's inaccurate most of the time, because it makes a huge assumption about the reader that might not be warranted.

I took it as "y'all" or "you, the general population" and not "you personally." Also...it's totally not worth getting upset over.

All that said, I'm still amazed that with the industry's increasing emphasis on asymmetric gaming, NOBODY has come up with a Dungeons and Dragons game with one dungeon master and three players. Penny Arcade had a strip about this, and it was dead on.

I wish you guys would cut it out with the headlines on here saying what "you" will be doing with one device or another. No, I WON'T be playing any games on the new PS4. I'm mildly curious about it, but I'm not a gamer. Trying to put "you" into headlines to make it relevant in this way is bush league. Worse, though, it's inaccurate most of the time, because it makes a huge assumption about the reader that might not be warranted.

Meh, if you are reading the article you--- --- are interested on some level in the console so it is not an unreasonable leap to write it for possible to probable purchasers.

For me, it would take some really big or interesting to get me to buy any of the next gen consoles--especially before I upgrade my desktop which I spend too much time gaming on.

I'm unlikely to be playing anything on the PS4, given how hard Sony worked to terminate our 28 year relationship over the PS3.

That said, if rumors are true, Microsoft is working to terminate my current relationship with them over the coming XBox, so who knows?

I do know for certain I'll be playing more games on the PC this coming generation, and it's looking increasingly likely I'll be sitting out this round of consoles. A shame, really, since I've kept involved since starting out in 1979.

This is the first console generation with 2 of the 3 hardware players barely paying any attention to graphics. I suspect that MS will follow the trend and ignore graphics in favor of 'value-add' features - they're already the leader in that area anyway.

Think the only thing that piqued my interest was "The Witness". And I'm probably just going to wait until it's released on Steam. Because the other 3 titles? I'm not interested in closing and opening a hood on a car... and I can get similar experiences as far as first person shooters go on PC.

Sony, make me a game that really defines a new experience, and doesn't involve some stupid gimmick like kinect.

Hoo, boy. It sounds like the PS4's connections will be connected to other connections by a connecting web of connectedness. It seems less like a breakthrough in gaming and more like an over-correction by a company with a troubled product. I'm not sure what "socially enriched content" is supposed to be, but it sounds suspiciously like "clock taped to household appliance" the way Sony trots it out.

Consider this sentence, for example: "The PS4 will allow you to see when your friend is "in trouble" in a game, so you can reach out and take control of the game through your own controller." But the problem is, I'm struggling to see the value in this for either person. I assume that my PS4 turned on in order to receive this message, and this "friend" is somewhere else. This means that 99% of the time I am doing something with my TV already when I get asked to play someone else's game. Assuming the technology works perfectly, I still have no idea why I would want to do this. Plus, now this friend is going to bug me all night, because games get harder as they go on. So help me understand here, is this something that people are going to want to do?

"The PS4 will allow you to see when your friend is "in trouble" in a game, so you can reach out and take control of the game through your own controller." But the problem is, I'm struggling to see the value in this for either person. I assume that my PS4 turned on in order to receive this message, and this "friend" is somewhere else. This means that 99% of the time I am doing something with my TV already when I get asked to play someone else's game. Assuming the technology works perfectly, I still have no idea why I would want to do this. Plus, now this friend is going to bug me all night, because games get harder as they go on. So help me understand here, is this something that people are going to want to do?

Ok until now they did everything right. I never really liked Killzone but the flight over Vekta city was one of the most beautiful computer generated things I have seen. The trailer was not as cool as Halo trailers but it was half a level played live goddamn.

Another Infamous, Diablo3, Destiny, ... sign me up. Add a potential Uncharted4 to that and the announced games look 5 million times better than what the PS3 had during the first 18 months.

The controller looks nice, low power sleep sounds FREAKING AWESOME. And the rest was ok as well.

Now if they don't do anything stupid like allowing Blizzard to rape us with always-on requirements or used game restrictions this will be a hit.

I was starting to get worried when they kept showing that Knack game for everything, while droning on and on about social media and other crap I have no interest in. "SHOW ME THE GAMES" I yelled at the screen.. and then they did. Killzone and Watchdog are must-haves. Infamous would be too but the footage they showed looked a little lame compared to the two previous games in the series but I'll keep my eye on it.

I can't believe all blizzard had to offer was diablo3... why did they even show up?

This is the first console generation with 2 of the 3 hardware players barely paying any attention to graphics. I suspect that MS will follow the trend and ignore graphics in favor of 'value-add' features - they're already the leader in that area anyway.

But without graphics, what will fanboys argue about now?

I don't know, something? A GTX680 doesn't have more ram, but it's a faster video card already than the PS4, and a Core i7 is already faster than the processor. Heck, buy a GTX Titan and an 8 core Ivy Bridge Core i7 when they're out at the end of the year and you'll be able to play every "new" console game out at 60 fps without needing an upgrade.

But, that's not what consoles are for I guess. Maybe we'll be yelling about who's "Cloud" is better.

Now if they don't do anything stupid like allowing Blizzard to rape us with always-on requirements or used game restrictions this will be a hit.

You mean you really think that D3 on PS4 wont have the RMAH ?

Plus i wouldnt be surprised if the system has an always online requirement(and personally dont have a problem with that, the internet in japan is great!)

No idea actually, I suspect it will have it too but consoles have hither been relatively restrictive in their requirements when it comes to games that want to come on their platform. And the ability to play them in regions of the world that do not have a perfect internet connection was normally one of them.

If they do that kind of stupid trick in general I would need to scream in terror and be silenced forever. (someone might feel a disruption in the force) Not only is it personally anathema because it is just so stupid and customer unfriendly. But it also kills it for myself because I chose not to throw money into the local internet monopoly and instead go with generous tethering. So I would be one of those holdouts for which this kind of requirement would be an absolute no-go.

*snip*If they do that kind of stupid trick in general I would need to scream in terror and be silenced forever. (someone might feel a disruption in the force) Not only is it personally anathema because it is just so stupid and customer unfriendly. But it also kills it for myself because I chose not to throw money into the local internet monopoly and instead go with generous tethering. So I would be one of those holdouts for which this kind of requirement would be an absolute no-go.

After being in Australia for the last 14 years then coming back to japan recently, ive been kind of lucky (having had great internet at cheap prices), but i can see the issues with people and bad internet. I would still not complain if the system was internet-always-only, it would certainly make your neighbors start complaining about the internet in your area(think of the possibilities ! lol)

This is the first console generation with 2 of the 3 hardware players barely paying any attention to graphics. I suspect that MS will follow the trend and ignore graphics in favor of 'value-add' features - they're already the leader in that area anyway.

But without graphics, what will fanboys argue about now?

I don't know, something? A GTX680 doesn't have more ram, but it's a faster video card already than the PS4, and a Core i7 is already faster than the processor. Heck, buy a GTX Titan and an 8 core Ivy Bridge Core i7 when they're out at the end of the year and you'll be able to play every "new" console game out at 60 fps without needing an upgrade.

But, that's not what consoles are for I guess. Maybe we'll be yelling about who's "Cloud" is better.

Yeah, that $2,400 PC is gong to smoke any $300 game system. Great call on that one.

I really prefer consoles for adventure style games, fighting games, and media. Watchdogs looks interesting, if slightly gimmicky, but nothing else in the launch line up really grabbed me. I already have netflix and blu-ray on my PS3, and I'm simply not interested in 4K media. Unless cheap is among their list of features, probably not going to be an early adopter this generation.

This is the first console generation with 2 of the 3 hardware players barely paying any attention to graphics. I suspect that MS will follow the trend and ignore graphics in favor of 'value-add' features - they're already the leader in that area anyway.

But without graphics, what will fanboys argue about now?

General consensus among most gamers is that tech specs do not matter and GAMES are what matters. Several recent launches (WiiU, PS3) stumbled badly largely due to the lack of titles at launch.

Beside, how much better can graphics get? We've reached the point of diminishing returns. Yeah, graphics can always get better, but to the average gamer, the difference just isn't that notable.

I don't blame the console makers for focusing on other features and not making tech specs the end-all and be-all. The PSP was a much better technical device than the DS, but didn't come close to matching it in terms of sales. Same thing with PS3 vs the Wii.

Am I the only one that sees the potential for advanced griefing with the remote play takeover option?

A: "Can someone help me get past this part? I wanna get this trophy, but it takes me two hours to get here and I die every time!"

B: "Sure thing, bro, hook me the remote up!"

A: "Thanks! I appreciate... Wait, why are you dumping all of my leet gear? What are you doing?! NOOOOO!"

B: "Real cool story, bro!"

I'm also very curious as to what kinds of regional restrictions they'll have for both physical media and the online services. Since I am bilingual and not living in the country of my birth, but still prefer to play games in my native language, this is important to me. (Yes, I know licensing and legal issues come into play here.)

. o O (Here's a hint: the amount of restrictions you put in place is inversely proportional to my inclination to buy into your platform.)

All that said, I'm still amazed that with the industry's increasing emphasis on asymmetric gaming, NOBODY has come up with a Dungeons and Dragons game with one dungeon master and three players. Penny Arcade had a strip about this, and it was dead on.

I would love that. I haven't really gotten into any of the MMOs because it seems it's mostly hack'n'slash min-maxing type stuff, too focused on mechanics and not enough on storytelling.

A D&D (or other similar campaign setting) type game with a real human dungeon master running the show and real human players all developing the story together with the console just handling the mechanics/graphics would be awesome. I'd buy that game in a heartbeat.

So was it essentially Snoresville? Diablo? A new FF game? Be still my beating fuckin heart.

How long was the Playstation network offline for last year or the year before?

I'll probably buy one console next generation, and Xbox kinda chapped my ass last/this gen between the RRoD, Xbox live fees with later increases tied to more ads and crapifiation of their GUI along with having to pay for shi that's usually free (apple tv, my television, etc dont charge me to stream netflix)...

It's always been my understanding, that you can always squeeze more graphics out of consoles than PCs, that is, you can get more out of the same hardware, because developers need to develop for a variety different hardware for the PC platform, whereas console game makers only focus on one. So developing for consoles is a little more efficient.

So, I don't think it will be as bad as people say. I doubt it's going to be similar to what we saw with the PS1, or the N64, which were simply mindblowing when they were launched, but I also don't think it'll be as bad.

That said, I still think Sony should have milked the PS3 a little while longer, and then come out with the PS4 a little later than they are now, with much, much better hardware, so that the improvement in graphics would be much more noticeable. But given their financial issues, I can see why they would want to push something out now.

All that said, I'm still amazed that with the industry's increasing emphasis on asymmetric gaming, NOBODY has come up with a Dungeons and Dragons game with one dungeon master and three players. Penny Arcade had a strip about this, and it was dead on.

I would love that. I haven't really gotten into any of the MMOs because it seems it's mostly hack'n'slash min-maxing type stuff, too focused on mechanics and not enough on storytelling.

A D&D (or other similar campaign setting) type game with a real human dungeon master running the show and real human players all developing the story together with the console just handling the mechanics/graphics would be awesome. I'd buy that game in a heartbeat.

Actually, a recent game that just came out, Crysis 3, supposedly has a multiplayer mode that has that kind of gameplay. It's 2 hunters vs. a bunch of regular soldiers, all played by online players.

This is the first console generation with 2 of the 3 hardware players barely paying any attention to graphics. I suspect that MS will follow the trend and ignore graphics in favor of 'value-add' features - they're already the leader in that area anyway.

But without graphics, what will fanboys argue about now?

General consensus among most gamers is that tech specs do not matter and GAMES are what matters. Several recent launches (WiiU, PS3) stumbled badly largely due to the lack of titles at launch.

Beside, how much better can graphics get? We've reached the point of diminishing returns. Yeah, graphics can always get better, but to the average gamer, the difference just isn't that notable.

I don't blame the console makers for focusing on other features and not making tech specs the end-all and be-all. The PSP was a much better technical device than the DS, but didn't come close to matching it in terms of sales. Same thing with PS3 vs the Wii.

Tech specs alone do not move units.

I do remember people telling everyone that the PSP (including myself) will bury the DS because it could deliver better games due to its better hardware. Then Nintendo released a couple of very casual games known as Nintendogs. Those two alone were the single reason that year the DS outsold the PSP at a 3 to 1 ratio in Japan.

Right now is just wait and see what the real deal will be by the end of the year.

They tried with Neverwinter nights, but a game is never going to be as dynamic as your imagination at the table. You're limited by what the game can do. IMO, that game would be unsatisfying to the tabletop gamers. So until the holodeck is invented, we're not going to see that. It's reinvinting the wheel imo. You already have your imagination which is always going to be more powerful and interesting than what preprogramed settings and features the devs stick in the game.

I wish you guys would cut it out with the headlines on here saying what "you" will be doing with one device or another. No, I WON'T be playing any games on the new PS4. I'm mildly curious about it, but I'm not a gamer. Trying to put "you" into headlines to make it relevant in this way is bush league. Worse, though, it's inaccurate most of the time, because it makes a huge assumption about the reader that might not be warranted.

I took it as "y'all" or "you, the general population" and not "you personally." Also...it's totally not worth getting upset over.

All that said, I'm still amazed that with the industry's increasing emphasis on asymmetric gaming, NOBODY has come up with a Dungeons and Dragons game with one dungeon master and three players. Penny Arcade had a strip about this, and it was dead on.

Sorry but that game exist, it called Neverwinter Night, the game mod tool are so complete, that there are people who host their own persistent MMO server.

The windows version of the game also run native on Linux, simply because of how it was coded, just need to get a custom script for the installation (available in Arch AUR repo for example), or do it manually.

so how's all this nonsense work with four people at once on the same console? can everyone share, or does one person sharing bring the experience to a halt?

with PC prices dropping rapidly (stupid touchscreen nonsense aside) the one real advantage consoles have is being a good have-a-few-beers-and-play-games-with-friends device. having to re-locate my xbox profile every time i play at a friend's house is already a massive impediment to me signing in anywhere outside of my house. if i want solo gaming with sharing, i'll use my PC. on a console, it merely turns gaming into a hassle. play as a guest, or just fire up the wii.....

They tried with Neverwinter nights, but a game is never going to be as dynamic as your imagination at the table. You're limited by what the game can do. IMO, that game would be unsatisfying to the tabletop gamers. So until the holodeck is invented, we're not going to see that. It's reinvinting the wheel imo. You already have your imagination which is always going to be more powerful and interesting than what preprogramed settings and features the devs stick in the game.

Unless you're really unimaginative and boring.

There can actually be DM that take control of stuff in real time in NWN, so limitation is mostly in how much stuff a DM can control at the same time (not a trouble with cooperative player, can always hit them with the DM hammer anyway if they don't =p) and not been able to improvise on the spot has much (but with you can compensate with preparation, with some off the map area, to which you teleport player at such occasion)

But each have their advantage, NWN require more preparation for DM to do good RP, while table top require lot more time spent on gaming element.

And another thing, it is all clear now why the game in MANY aspects took steps BACKWARDS from Diablo 2. This was planned the entire god damned time.

I paid $60 bucks to beta test a game for months so console owners could have a polished experience...

I feel so betrayed because this is Blizzard I am talking about. Blizzard, the premiere PC game maker. Now it is all so clear as to why they made bad design decisions for a PC game, they did it because they wanted the console experience to be the best it could be, and in the process they royally screwed the PC player base.